The wind continues today, somewhat less intense, but strong enough that the wind chimes are constantly ringing. All of this accompanies a cold front that came through yesterday and the temperatures have fallen back down to the low thirties. In a day or two, they’ll rise again. And so goes our weather pattern for February and March.

Yesterday, though – or should I say, because – I was sleep deprived, I got in the car and ran some errands. (I find that when I’m exhausted, I need to assign myself some tasks, whether it’s cleaning the bathroom or running errands. Helps me get through the day.) Along the way, I stopped at a local antique emporium that I frequent, only because I had seen a post for a vintage house that I was curious about. I had no plans on buying it – no. more. room! – but I wanted to see if it actually was  a dollhouse.

I could only get to one side for a clear picture and thankfully, it happens to be the best side. I love that railing. Anyway, it’s a model house, not a dollhouse. There is no way to access the inside. You can open the doors and see the dimly lit interior, but neither the sides or the roof are removable. It’s not 1:12 scale; I’m not exactly sure what scale it is. It’s sort of charming and would be a folk art display piece. There’s damage to the roof as you can see. And – get this – the price was $450.00. I guess the dealer is pricing it as Folk Art with capital letters. When you consider that my most recent house, which is just as wonderful, can  be accessed, only cost $130.00, well….

But it’s cool, that’s for sure. Since you can’t access the interior, was it a display piece showing what the exterior of a future home would look like? Or was it simply constructed by an artisan as a miniature house – a model of a house? Hmmm.

I also saw this cabinet, which, if I lived in a larger house, I would love to have:

The storage! The colors! The shelves! It’s so wonderful.

I did pick up this little jadeite gem:

I’ve seen these jadeite egg cups around for years and could have purchased one at any time, but I was collecting figural egg cups, so I didn’t. Now that figurals are less available, I’ve been branching out, but only occasionally. When I saw this beauty, I bought it. It has a new home in the egg cup cubby.

I came home, tried to sleep, but couldn’t. We were both so tired that we watched old Dick Van Dyke episodes in the evening. No need for too much concentration, just favorite episodes.

By the way, we watched Joker  the other night and we disliked it – a lot. From what I’ve gathered, people seem to either love it or hate it with not a lot of anything in between. A friend of ours loved it so much, he watched it twice. I, on the other hand, felt like I needed to take a shower afterwards. It was self-indulgent, both on an acting and a directorial level. Though it tends to drive me crazy when people say that acting must be easy – it isn’t – I will say that this sort of overt and unsubtle portrayal of insanity isn’t difficult for an actor to execute. Subtlety and nuance requires much more skill. It wasn’t written well, either, which didn’t help. Joaquin Phoenix is a good actor, don’t get me wrong. I’m just speaking to this particular performance.

Thanks so much for your book mentions yesterday. I love seeing all of you comment not only on the post itself, but on each other’s posts as well. I can’t help smiling when I see that.

Happy Friday.